AROUND 150 people queued to buy their tickets for this year’s Farnham Beerex in the early hours of Sunday – with each being able to secure the tickets they wanted and most away home within 20 minutes.

Heading up the queue was Robin Thompson from Walton on Thames who set up camp at midnight, followed by Farnham’s Ben Dawson at 3am, and friends Andy McLoughlin from Haywards Heath and Dan Fradley from Bracknell both of whom arrived at 4am.

The tradition of queuing on a Sunday morning in February – often cold, often wet, mostly both – started in 1978 for the second Farnham Beer Exhibition, the first having been such a success.

Beerex fans keen for a ticket would form a queue that snaked right around the perimeter of the Maltings and many in it joined it as the pubs closed at 11pm the previous night.

For many a year the only real hope of obtaining a ticket was by queuing and even five years ago it was normal for the highly prized Saturday lunchtime tickets to sell out within minutes, leaving those at the back of the queue disappointed.

As the numbers queuing decreased more were able to secure their requirements but a lot of tickets remained unsold and were subsequently purchased online or via the Maltings.

The feedback from many was that it was time for Beerex ticketing to change and so after three years of debate by the Beerex committee and some testing using online alternatives the decision was taken this year that the 2019 queue would be the last.

On Sunday morning, appropriately both wet and cold as the darkness lifted, Beerex committee members Peter Matthew and Phil Williams broke news of the planned changes to the queue.

To their relief the decision appeared to be well received by all and confirmed as being the right decision by those that turned up to buy at 8.15am and still able to get what they wanted.

Tickets did not sell out and are now available online and via the Maltings’ box office, whilst stocks last.

Farnham Beerex is one of the biggest events in the town calendar, and is one of the UK’s longest running beer festivals – certainly the longest running at the same location.

It is visited by many who can lay claim to have attended every Beerex, others most and many who are discovering it for the first time.

Older, younger, male, female all are welcome as long as they are over 18. It has so far raised more than £900,000 all of which is used to support local good causes.